


The Kelpie

by WorryinglyInnocent



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: A Monthly Rumbelling, Dark Castle, F/M, First Meeting, Kelpie!Belle, Rumbelle - Freeform, enchanted forest, relationship beginning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:12:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22132504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WorryinglyInnocent/pseuds/WorryinglyInnocent
Summary: Rumpelstiltskin has an unexpected discussion with a curious kelpie.Written for the @a-monthly-rumbelling moodboard prompt, availablehere.
Relationships: Belle/Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold
Comments: 9
Kudos: 50





	The Kelpie

Kelpies, Rumpelstiltskin reflected, were difficult. As soon as you had one in your sights, the sneaky little blighter would run off again and vanish. They’d go back to the sea (or whatever deep body of water happened to be closest, they weren’t picky), or else they’d take on human form and get lost in the crowd, or else they’d just hide.

They were crafty like that. One minute you were creeping through the heather with the aid of a silencing spell on your boots, towards a lovely, docile-looking horse; the next you were chasing it around with no thought for silence or for how silly you looked.

Rumpelstiltskin had long since come to the conclusion that, being magical creatures themselves, such magical aids as silenced boots had absolutely no effects on kelpies whatsoever, but that never stopped him from using the same spells over and over whenever he wanted to get his hands on one.

Well, strictly metaphorically of course.

That was the other thing about kelpies. Even if the silenced boots worked by some miracle, there was the small matter of getting close enough to touch the thing and pluck the necessary tail hairs without it noticing and its self-defence mechanisms kicking in. Kelpies were, as well as being extremely difficult, extremely clever beasts, and they knew how to get you just where they wanted you – on their back, where you would stay by hook or by crook until they reached the bottom of the sea again. (Or whatever deep body of water happened to be closest, they weren’t picky.)

For all his frustrations with them, Rumpelstiltskin thought that kelpies did have something of a bad rep among ordinary, non-magical folk. _He_ had issues with them because they made their tail hairs, useful in potions to aid shape-shifting and breathing underwater, so hard to come by. The rest of the non-potion-making world had them down as vicious, man-eating beasts who lured unsuspecting children to their doom in the depths.

There was no truth in that whatsoever. They were vegetarians for a start. No, they just had a visceral dislike towards being mistaken for real horses, and unlike real horses, who had no excellent comeback for being stroked or petted or ridden against their will, kelpies had very drastic ways of making sure that the culprit never did it again.

Rumpelstiltskin would not have been thinking about kelpies so much if he had not needed to brew a fresh batch of potions and had there not been one grazing in the heather outside the Dark Castle for the last couple of weeks.

He had ignored it when it first arrived. Tail hair was always best fresh, and he hadn’t needed it at the time, and kelpies usually moved on after a day or so. It was strange to see one stay in the same place for so long.

It was a particularly fine specimen, even if Rumpelstiltskin did say so himself. Smaller than normal, but with a lustrous grey-white coat that would have looked equally at home on a unicorn, and a silky mane and tail stretching almost to the ground.

Staring out of the tower window, Rumpelstiltskin drummed his nails along the edge, trying to work out the best course of action. He’d been looking for the best way to approach the kelpie for a couple of days now, and given their intelligence, he wondered whether he or it was the one being lulled into a false sense of security. It really was strange to see one for so long.

Rumpelstiltskin made his decision. Even if the thing had cooked up some kind of elaborate trap for him, he couldn’t pass up this chance to get fresh tail hair. He would just have to be careful. Even the most ordinary of horses had the tendency to be dangerous at both ends and crafty in the middle. He enchanted his boots and made his way out to the heather field. It would likely be the last kelpie that passed through these parts before winter, when they would all make their way back to the warmth of the sea.

The creature was facing him, which would make sneaking up on it difficult, but Rumpelstiltskin had never backed down from a challenge before and trudging all the way around out of its line of sight would take up precious time. Transporting himself any closer was also out of the question; the times he had tried it in the past had always inevitably ended with a spooked kelpie and an almost-trampled Rumpelstiltskin.

It wasn’t paying him any attention, absorbed totally in nibbling the fragrant heather, and Rumpelstiltskin continued to walk towards it, slowly.

It stopped nibbling. One ear flicked. Rumpelstiltskin froze. The kelpie lifted its head and stared him dead in the eye, almost as if it was daring him to come closer. Very well. Rumpelstiltskin took another couple of steps forward. The kelpie didn’t move and its eyes – unusually and unnaturally blue – never left his. This kelpie, Rumpelstiltskin thought, was either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid. Or, indeed, both.

He never saw the moment the change happened. One second he was looking at a silvery-white horse. The next he was looking at a woman. There had been no transformation process, no puff of smoke or interesting segue. Just in the space of a blink, the form had changed. Rumpelstiltskin stopped in his tracks and the kelpie grinned.

She was very petite, no doubt owing to the true horse form’s small stature, and the more closely that he looked at her, the more Rumpelstiltskin could tell that she was not truly human. He had never seen a kelpie’s human form up close before. Usually they only shifted in order to escape or conceal themselves more easily.

She was wearing a long, hooded coat of thick horse hide, fastened firmly at the front with toggles. Beneath the hood, curls of auburn human hair interspersed with the odd lock of silver horse’s mane, and he could make out the shapes of ears twitching. Below the hem of the coat, the haze of illusion that showed bare human toes peeping out dissipated in front of Rumpelstiltskin’s vast magical experience to show the tips of black hooves instead.

Her face was fully human though, and very pretty with it. Rumpelstiltskin shook his head crossly; where had that thought come from? Now that he was face to face with her, perhaps she could be reasoned with. Did kelpies understand human language? Did they speak? He’d certainly not deny that they were intelligent enough to do so. Nothing chanced, nothing gained.

“Erm, hello.” It wasn’t exactly the smoothest beginning that he could have hoped for, but it was something.

The kelpie smiled again. “Hello.”

Her voice reminded him of the waves and the darkness under them, and Rumpelstiltskin shivered. No, it would most certainly not do to forget her true form whilst he was speaking with her.

“I’ve never conversed with a kelpie before,” he continued.

“I’ve never conversed with a human before.” She tilted her head on one side. “Are you a human? You look… odd.”

“Odd?” Rumpelstiltskin was disproportionately offended by this remark. “You’re not exactly inconspicuous yourself with hooves and horse’s ears, madam.”

“Ah, yes, but you’re forgetting that I am not a human. I am a kelpie, and you seek my tail hair for your potions.”

Rumpelstiltskin, who had chanced to take another couple of steps closer, stopped short again. “How did you know?”

“Why else would you be moving so furtively? It can’t just be a desire to see a pretty horse up close.” She gave him a probing look. “Why do you need my hair?”

“For my potions, like you said. It has many magical properties.”

“It’s my hair; I am well aware of its many magical properties. That’s why I’m so loathe to part with it, you see.”

Rumpelstiltskin enumerated the many uses of kelpie tail hair in potions and took another few steps forward until he was standing right in front of her, close enough to reach out and touch. He knew better than to do so, of course.

“Hmm.” The kelpie pondered for a while, leaving Rumpelstiltskin to listen to the sound of the wind rustling through the heather. It took him a moment to realise that it was not the wind. Beneath the hem of her long coat, the kelpie’s tail was swishing and brushing against the ground.

“All right,” she said eventually. “But on one condition.”

Rumpelstiltskin raised an eyebrow. “You wish to make a deal with me? You should know that I have something of a reputed specialty in that area, dearie. Very well. What are the terms of your deal?”

“Come and see me in the spring,” she said. “Once you’ve made your underwater potion, you’ll be able to travel to my realm beneath the surface. I’d like to see for myself how well you’re using my tail.”

On the face of it, Rumpelstiltskin knew that it was a terrible deal. He’d very likely end up drowned. Could the Dark One even be drowned? He didn’t know, and he wasn’t sure that he wanted to find out.

On the other hand, she was certainly the most interesting kelpie that he’d ever come into contact with, and it would be no hardship to see her again.

He held out his hand and she laid hers in it delicately, her fingers feeling more like hooves than skin. “The deal is struck.”

“Excellent. May I know your name, strange human?”

“Rumpelstiltskin. And yours, strange kelpie?”

“Belle.”

“Belle.” Rumpelstiltskin got the feeling that she was going to be important somehow.

The horse was back as suddenly as the human had appeared, staring him down just as intently as before, and Rumpelstiltskin felt extremely nervous as he made his way down to the tail, selecting a single white hair and plucking it sharply. As soon as he stepped back, Belle began to gallop away from the castle, off towards the sea where he would find her in the spring.

Rumpelstiltskin was very much looking forward to it.


End file.
